UnCrossing Jordan
by MADAM BETH
Summary: FINAL CHAPTER 5 is up!! Enjoy!!!
1. Default Chapter

Not mine, can't even begin to tell you what I'd do with em' if they were!

Summary---"Jordan needs some R&R after everything that has happened….even if it means kidnapping her in the middle of the night to get her to realize that."

                                                **Un-Crossing Jordan**

            "Well, I didn't get my promotion." I said from the doorway of Jordan's office. I startled her and she jumped in her chair when I spoke. I smiled an 'I'm sorry' for scaring her. Jordan looked up from her work and smiled sadly at me. 

"I'm sorry Woody. It was because you wouldn't give up Dad, right?" she asked. I lied and shook my head no. 

"It just wasn't my turn." I said smiling sadly back. I pulled my hands out of my pockets and stepped into her office. I could see her better in the light from her desk lamp. She looked like hell. 

'You look like hell, Jordan." I said stepping slowly to the edge of her desk. She huffed and with some effort, raised an eyebrow at me. 

"Gee thanks." She said turning her eyes back guiltily to her paperwork. She wasn't really doing anything but trying to ignore me. 

I sighed. "Why don't you go home? You've had a tough couple of days." I said and started back for the door. Jordan laughed and looked up at me again. 

"I've had tougher." She said and her voice cracked a little. I nodded and inadvertently looked down at the picture of her mom sitting next to her computer. Jordan didn't catch it, thankfully and I backed out of the room. 

"Take it easy Jordan, okay?" I said walking backwards. 

"uh huh." She responded quietly and continued pretending to care what was on the papers she was reading. On my way to the elevator I got an idea and decided to stop at Dr. Macy's office on my way out. He was sitting at his desk just like Jordan except for the fact that he probably actually WAS doing work. I stuck my head in and gave him a chance to acknowledge me before I spoke. 

"What can I do for you detective?" He asked without looking up from his papers. I glanced briefly back at Jordan's open door.

"Mind if I come in for a minute Doc?" I asked quietly. 

"Sure, come in Woody." He said and I hurried in, gently closing the door behind me. I waited until he finished the last three papers in front of him and then he sat back and stretched his arms behind his head, waiting for my question. 

"When was the last time Jordan took a REAL vacation?" I asked softly and then before he could respond I specified. "And by vacation I don't mean 'took a month off to chase the brother of a friend of a cousin's girlfriend who knew some guy that said he knew something about her mother's murder." I said smiling weakly. Dr. Macy smiled in understanding and then leaned back and thought for a moment. 

"Honestly, Woody," he said looking up at the ceiling and then back at me. "I don't think that in the time she's worked here, Jordan has ever taken a REAL vacation." He said and I nodded in understanding. 

"Why do you ask?" Dr. Macy said narrowing his eyes at me curiously. I smiled widely. 

"I was hoping you would ask that." I said and took a seat next to his desk. 

Later that night, I crept slowly up the stairs to Jordan's apartment. 'She was gonna kill me for this' was all I could think as snuck slowly higher, making sure my sandals didn't clop as I walked. I held the key to her door that her dad had leant me very still as I placed it in the lock and turned slowly. I second guessed myself briefly on how good of an idea this was only briefly as I opened the door and found her still dressed, curled in a ball on her sofa asleep. 'Jordan needs some R&R after everything that has happened,' I thought moving towards the couch slowly, 'even if it means kidnapping her in the middle of the night to get her to realize that.' I thought as I gently ran a finger along her cheek. She stirred slowly and then I suppose she realized where she was and that no one should have been there with her, and she clocked me on the side of my head.   
"OUCH!" I yelped holding my head as the room spun like a top. Jordan's eyes focused in the dark and she narrowed them at me puzzled. 

"Woody!? What the hell are you doing here?" she asked in a whisper and sat up quickly on the couch. 

"Oh my head's fine Jordan thanks for asking." I said sarcastically still rubbing where she had pummeled me. 

"Well it serves you right!" she said louder now, "who sneaks into people's apartments in the middle of the night?!" She asked and turned on the light beside her. While she checked the damage she had inflicted upon my head, I explained to her how her dad was going away on vacation for a little and he had given me his key to her apartment so I could make her do the same. 

"Wait, so….What?" she asked sitting back into the couch and beckoning me to sit with her. 

"I'm kidnapping you Jordan." I said seriously. She rolled her eyes.   
"Oh really?" she asked, almost appalled but not quite there yet. "And what makes you think I am going to go with you?" She asked folding her arms defiantly. I smiled and stood from the couch.   
"See, now that's the beauty of a kidnapping, you don't really have a choice in the matter." I said proudly and Jordan stood from the couch as well. 

"But I DO have a choice in the matter of whether I get fired or not." She said just as proudly as I had and I took her by the arm and grabbed her purse from the floor as I dragged her to the door. 

"You aren't going to be fired, I talked to Dr. Macy, he was more than happy to get rid of you for a few weeks." I said and continued to drag.   
"Hey! Wait a second slow down here Wood! Where am I getting kidnapped to and don't I get time to pack?" she asked pulling her arm away from my grip. I smirked and threw the strap of her purse over her head as I opened the door.   
"Ummmm…..not telling and you don't get to pack at all, something tells me you don't have much weather appropriate attire for where we're going." I said and pulled her out the door, shutting the lights off as I went. 

An hour later, we were flying somewhere over the east coast on our way to Key West. And Jordan was still hassling me to find out where we were headed. I smiled and shook my head no, returning my eyes to view of the rising sun out the window of the small propeller plane we were flying in. 

"So, when exactly do I get to know where we are going Wood?" Jordan asked and I turned my eyes back to her and smiled. I looked up at the ceiling playfully and smiled. 

"Ummmmmm…..when the pilot gives us the ten minute warning." I said and Jordan thought on this for a minute before nodding in defeat. 

"Oh, alright." She said and laid her head back on the headrest, deciding to doze while she waited. I smiled at her before glancing back out the window at the sunrise. 

A short while later, the captain came on to announce our impending arrival. Jordan awakened with a start and looked around a little befuddled. I laid a hand on top of hers on the armrest to settle her. When she was better aware of her surroundings, she looked at me expectantly. 

"So? Where are we going!?" she asked excitedly and stretched her arms over her head. I smiled and looked out the window at the clear blue ocean. When I looked back at Jordan, her arms were still stretched over her head. She raised her eyebrows at me and I laughed. 

"Key West. Very beachy…great for surfin'." I said and Jordan gasped happily, throwing her arms around me. 

"Ahhhh!! The beach!? How did you find somewhere to stay on such little notice!?" She asked and leaned over me to look out the window. I smiled at her childlike wonder. 

"Well," I said moving my head next to Jordan's and looking out the window with her. "My uncle Jimmy is something of a free spirit…lives nomadically all over the world. He's got a little villa, right on the beach, hammock out front, on the island. We used to visit him as kids, he taught me how to surf." I said proudly and Jordan seemed impressed. 

"You can surf Farm Boy?" she asked glancing sideways at me smiling coyly. I just nodded. 

"Maybe you can teach me how?" She asked hesitantly and I smiled genuinely.   
"I think I can work that in." I said playfully and Jordan smiled back as we continued to watch out the window.

When we had finally left the airport and picked up a suitable wardrobe for Jordan, I told her we had to make a quick stop at a storage place after I picked up a key from a locker my uncle had left for me. We got to the place the tag on the key said and it was a long term parking lot kind of place. I led Jordan through the gate and an attendant there pointed me in the direction I needed to go. I smiled when I spotted my Uncle's little motorcycle and ran over and hopped on it. Jordan watched me amused and then raised an eyebrow when I called for her to join me.   
"For real?" she said and I revved the engine with a grin. I wagged my eyebrows at her playfully and handed her a helmet. Jordan put it on and placed her stuff in the saddle bags of the bike before climbing onto the back and wrapping her arms snugly around my waist.   
"Is there anything you can't do?!" she yelled over the engine and I smiled over my shoulder at her. 

"Wouldn't you like to know!" I yelled back with a smirk as we pulled out of the lot and sped off down the coast of the little island. Jordan relaxed quickly on the back of the bike and eventually let her chin rest on my shoulder. We didn't speak on the way. I wanted Jordan to enjoy the view. 

We pulled off the main roads onto the sandy paths that led to the beachfront villas. I could see my uncles place through the thick, tropical brush and slowed a little to point it out to Jordan. She nodded against my shoulder as we neared the little path leading to his place. I stopped the bike next the sand path and Jordan hopped off as I kicked out the kickstand and hopped off myself. I pulled off my helmet and Jordan pulled off hers. I handed Jordan her bag and she took it quickly, looking all around taking a visual recon of the area. 

"So what do you think?" I asked and Jordan turned her head to me and smiled.   
"It's beautiful Woody. Thanks. Really, it means a lot to me that you would want to bring me here." She said laying a hand on my shoulder. I smiled and nodded, flashing her my 'aw gawsh' smile. Jordan turned then and headed up the path to the little white villa. I followed closely behind her and looked over the house for any changes. It looked relatively the same. Sweet view of the beach which was only about 40 feet from the back porch, screen door that was rarely locked, canvas hammock out back, strung between two towering palm trees. Deck torches at the four corners of the property and it looked like he recently re-painted the shudders of the one floor villa a sea foam green color. Jordan quietly took everything in as we approached the front door. I saw a note attached to the screen and Jordan took it off and handed it to me. 

"HollyWood, 

                    Restocked the fridge with Corona and the sheets on the beds are new. Enough food for the week, if you're stayin' longer there's a little grocery store about 2 miles west. Surfboards and fishing gear's in the shed out back and don't forget, shower's outside, cold means cold and hot means cold…been meaning to fix that…

                                                                                                Stay outta trouble!

                                                                                                            Uncle Jimmy 

I smiled and looked at Jordan who was pulling the screen door open with a creak. 

"Hollywood?…So Uncle Jimmy wouldn't happen to be Jimmy Buffet would he?" she asked with a chuckle and I looked down at the sand embarrassed. 

"That's umm….what he calls…me…it's kinda a pet name…Cal's was…" Jordan interrupted me. 

"Let me guess…California?" She asked with a smile. I smiled and nodded my head. 

 "Yes, it was California, and no, he's not Jimmy Buffet but we get that a lot." I said and Jordan just nodded and entered the house. 

"SURE he isn't 'Hollywood'." She said from the doorway. I followed behind her, carrying our stuff.

"Uncle Jimmy he thought it was funny that my name was Woody so he just dropped the Y and added…" Jordan cut me off. 

"Yeah, I get it Wood." She said and then asked where the light was. I startled her when I struck a match on the wall and held it up to light my face. 

"Right here." I said with a smile and lit the candle closest to the door. I handed a few matches to Jordan and she wandered the room lighting candles as she went. When the room was reasonably bright, Jordan began to skim the picture-covered walls holding evidence of my Uncle's travels. There were pictures from Paris, Morocco, Mexico, Alaska, Ireland and just about every other corner of the Earth you could think of. She chuckled when she came across a bunch of family pictures and I joined her in looking at them. 

"Awww….is that you?" she asked pointing to the pudgy little three year old in one picture straddling a surfboard, his mouth opened, screaming in terror as a man standing about waist deep in the ocean held onto both ends of the shortened board. I sighed and ran a hand over my eyes shyly. 

"uh, yeah it is…I wasn't always such a water baby." I said chuckling and Jordan shook her head in amusement. I took her bag from her and motioned for her to follow me. We strode down a little hallway to the back of the house where I turned left into what was usually my parent's room when we stayed there. It was a cozy little niche with grass curtains and a dresser lined with different varieties of seashells that had been super glued onto the edges. A conch shell lay on top of the dresser under an old oval shaped mirror.

"And…and…here's the bed." I said flopping her bag down on the edge of the double bed. Jordan looked around the room and then threw me a lopsided smile as I had just stated the absolute most obvious. She looked out the window at the wide view of the ocean and I turned to the door and pointed to the room across from hers. 

"And uhh…that….that's where I'll be." I said and Jordan nodded, still lost in the view of the sea. There were a few moments of silence and then I cleared my throat. 

"So…how do you feel about a clam bake for a late lunch/early dinner?" I asked and Jordan finally turned to look at me. 

"That sounds great." She said with a sigh and took my hand as we headed out to the back door. 

We went through the simple kitchen to the back door and Jordan hurried out while I filled a pail with clams in the kitchen. When I had gathered all of the cooking materials we would need and laid two plates out on the little wooden table. I looked around for Jordan and she was lounging in the hammock, the sea breeze whipping her hair around her face. I smiled and put the pail down, strolling over to the hammock. Jordan slowly turned her head and smiled at me. 

"Comfy?" I asked leaning on one of the palm trees and crossing my arms across the button down linen shirt I changed into. Jordan nodded and invited me to join her with a pat of her hand on the canvas next to her. I smiled and slumped down next to Jordan, casually wrapping my arm around her. She rested her head on my upper arm and sighed heavily. 

"We're really secluded out here Woody, I looked around, and the nearest neighbors are about a mile down the beach in either direction. This place is perfect. Paradise." She said sleepily and I nodded. 

"Yeah, paradise." I said with a yawn and let my eyes slip shut. I hadn't meant to drift off to sleep but with Jordan safely next to me and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, I was quickly lulled to sleep. And just as I succumbed to my lack of sleep from the previous night, I realized from her even breathing that Jordan had fallen asleep as well. 

Four hours later, I was awakened by the now setting sun in front of us over the top of the house. I blinked awake and looked down at Jordan who was still asleep, having at some point managed to swing a tanned leg over my own and one of her arms was thrown across my chest. It was a very possessive gesture, even for someone who was asleep and I smiled before running a hand down her arm gently. Jordan twitched and squirmed slowly awakening. She lifted the hand thrown across me and covered her eyes from the orange sun. Then she yawned and turned her head to look at me and smiled when she found me already awake. 

"Hey." She said groggily and I yawned in response. "How long have you been awake?" She asked and I covered my own eyes from the sun. 

"Not long." I said and leaned forward, bringing both of us up into a sitting position in the hammock.   
"Still up for those clams?" I asked and Jordan stood stretching her arms above her. 

"Sure, except I think we need to get some new ones….the others have soured a little." She said leaning over the bucket while holding her nose. I smiled and stood as well.   
"I'll get some more." I said heading for the door. Jordan followed me saying she was going to change before dinner. 

I was just placing the plate of steaming clams on the table when Jordan opened the back door with a creak and stepped out. I looked up and scanned her new attire before she could catch me looking. She was wearing a pair of baby blue capris and a blue tank top with a hibiscus flower on the front. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she had white sandals on. 

"You look rested." I said pulling a chair out from the table and gesturing for her to sit. Jordan smiled shyly and came to the table. 

"So do you." She said sitting down and allowing me to push in her chair. I just smiled and sat down across from her. 

"I can't believe you, Woody." She said suddenly about 5 minutes into our otherwise relatively silent meal. 

"Can't believe what?" I asked with a smirk as I worked open a shell. Jordan chuckled and worked on a shell herself. 

"This, all of this. That you would do all of this for me. No one has ever done anything like this for me." She said sadly then tried to laugh." I guess they just figured I was a lost cause. But you don't seem to have gotten that memo." She said taking a sip of water. 

"I guess not." I said wiping my mouth as Jordan stood from the table and moved toward me. She bent forward and kissed me on the cheek, holding her lips there for a moment. When she pulled away, I could tell by her eyes that she was thinking. Thinking when you are Jordan isn't necessarily always a good thing so when she opened her mouth to say something, I cut her off. 

"So you wanna go for a walk?" I asked with a sigh and Jordan smiled, looking at the ground. 

"Sure." She said holding out her hand for me to take. I took it gently and she pulled me to my feet. I wrapped an arm around Jordan's shoulders to keep her warm and she wrapped her arm around my waist. I started towards the beach and Jordan smiled. 

"Ooooo….he likes long walks on the beach too…how come some girl hasn't swept you up already?" She asked and I looked down at my feet. 

I huffed and looked out over the now dark ocean. The moonlight was dancing across the waves. 

"There was one…but…I…I messed that up." I said and Jordan seemed surprised. She looked up at me shocked. 

"Oh, you wanna talk about it." She asked seriously. I shook my head nervously. "Have you ever talked to anyone about it?" She asked catching on and again I shook my head no. 

"It was a misunderstanding." I said sadly and looked back out at the ocean. 

"What was, Woody?" Jordan asked recapturing my attention. I turned my eyes back to her and sighed. I thought for a moment then started to explain. 

"Remember how I told you I had gotten stood up by my prom date?" Jordan nodded. "Well, I was sitting out on my front porch, wallowing in self pity, and the girl next door came out onto her porch and she was crying. Her name is Annie. We've lived next to each other since…boy…probably since we were about 8. I just sat there, watching her cry. I didn't know whether to hurry up and get my ass into the house before she saw me, or to go over and comfort her. She was my friend that's what I was supposed to do. So I got up and walked across the lawn to her door. She was sitting in her porch swing in her prom dress. She looked up as I stepped up onto the porch, tux and all.  I smiled and sat down next to her on the swing. I said hi and she just turned her head and smiled weakly at me. I pulled out that little hanky from the pocket of my tux and handed it to her. She took it and said 'thank you Woody.' I nodded and wrapped my around her. I asked her what happened and she told me that she and her boyfriend had gotten prom king and queen. I congratulated her and she shook her head. They had called their names and she hurried to the stage smiling away and looking around for her boyfriend. They couldn't find him anywhere. Then someone lifted up the cloth on one of the tables and he was passed out drunk under it. All of his friends started laughing at him. Everyone else started laughing at her. She was mortified. She ran all the way home from the school. I told her that I was sorry he had done that to her. That she deserved better than that. She looked at me then, and it was a different look than I had ever seen her give me before. She leaned forward and kissed me. When she pulled back, she looked me over and said, 'So do you.' She knew I had been stood up.  I…just… smiled and kissed her back." 

When I finished the happier part of my story, Jordan was smiling happily at me. "So where did you go wrong?" She asked narrowing her eyes at me. I let my own smile fade away and Jordan waited patiently for me to continue. 

"We were together after that. Inseparable. She was my first love. A little over two years ago, we started talking marriage." I said and Jordan seemed surprised by this admission. I just nodded answering a question she hadn't asked out loud. 

"I decided to go to her father, the local sheriff and MY boss, and ask for his permission." I sighed heavily, lost in the memory of that day. 

  
"And what did he say?" Jordan asked quietly over the break of the waves only feet away. 

"He said….that no daughter of his was going to marry a cop. She deserved better than that." I said and Jordan shook her head at the irony of his words. 

"So what did you do?" She asked laying her head back against my shoulder. I smiled and looked down at the sand, embarrassed to admit to Jordan that I was a runner too. 

"Well, let's just say you and I may have been broken from a similar mold after all." I said and Jordan stopped and looked at me surprise written all over her face. 

"You RAN!?" she asked incredulously. I nodded sadly and then shook my head and sat down in the sand. Jordan flopped down next to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. 

"I didn't mean to hurt her…it was…just…" I trailed off lifting a handful of sand and letting it sift slowly through my knuckles and slowly fly away with the wind. 

"Easier?" Jordan suggested finishing my thought with experience. I nodded and ran a hand through my hair. "I get that, trust me." Jordan said and I hoped she would continue by sharing a story of her own. There were a few moments of silence where I thought she might share something but then she stood and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. 

"Come on cowboy…you have a big day of teaching me how to surf tomorrow." She said gently tugging on my fingertips to get my arm around her shoulders again. I complied and we started back for the house. When we were inside Jordan made note of the lack of a television. Then I made note that we would need to make our own entertainment then as I handed her a Corona from the fridge. I followed Jordan to her room and when she plopped down on the bed on her stomach, I took a seat on the floor letting my head rest on the mattress next to Jordan's head where it lay nearly hung over the edge. We stayed up half the night basically playing "20 Questions" about each other's childhoods. At around 2 am, I looked at my watch and announced that I better get some sleep. As  I was leaving the room, Jordan requested an extra question. 

"If you get another question, it can't be called 20 questions anymore." I said with a smile and Jordan rolled her eyes. 

"Humor me?" she asked with a smile. I rolled my eyes back at her and she sat up excitedly on the bed. She had only had 3 beers and she was in quite a tipsy state. I nodded cautiously and Jordan pulled a pillow to her chest and settled into the mattress before she asked,

"Why didn't you bring any pajamas with you?" She asked and I rubbed the back of my head nervously and sighed. 

"Because I don't have any pajamas." I answered and headed towards my room.

"But wait! Does that mean you sleep naked!?" Jordan yelled after me. I stopped and swung around the corner of her room. 

"That's 22 questions." I said with a smirk and headed back to my room, leaving Jordan to ponder my response. 


	2. Chapter 2

Un-Crossing Jordan----CHAPTER 2 

When I woke up the next morning I pulled on a pair of track pants and wandered into the kitchen. Jordan was already there and cooking eggs at the stove; in my high school football jersey and most likely nothing else. She turned and looked at me standing in the doorway and tried to hide it when she did a double take of my bare chest. I let my eyes travel up her bare leg and settled on her eyes. She arched an eyebrow at me. 

"All you had to do was ask Jordan." I said with a chuckle and she smiled back. 

"What? You apparently didn't need it. I snuck in and grabbed it while you were making dinner." She said then with a smirk pointed the spatula down at herself and said, "Or do you want me to take it off now?" She asked and I swallowed the lump in my throat.   
"I'd like that very much. But no you keep it," I said walking towards the little breakfast nook near the door. "Looks better on you than it ever did on me anyway."  I mumbled scratching my head as I sat down on the window seat and laid my head down on my crossed arms on the table. Jordan flipped my eggs onto a plate and set it in front of me after nudging my head off of the table with the edge of the plate. I smiled and thanked her before digging in. She took a seat next to me on the bench-like windowsill and asked if the shower really was outside. I nodded. 

"Uh huh," I said between mouthfuls. "It rarely drops below 80 degrees around here and Uncle Jimmy made the inside bathroom into…well…I'm a cop and I shouldn't even let on that I know what he made the bathroom into."  I said alluding to my uncle's illegal greenhouse. Jordan chuckled finishing up her eggs and taking her plate to the sink. 

"Okay, well then I am gonna go take a shower, clean up a little around here, and I could use a little help by the way, and then, Surf's up!" she called throwing me the pinkie and thumb surfer dude hand signal. I smiled and shook my head as Jordan popped the back door open with her butt and slipped around the side of the house to the shower. When I heard the shower start, I took my plate to the sink and rinsed it off. 

"Holy mother of God! That's freezing!" I heard Jordan yell from outside and I peeked my head out the window. 

"Problem Jordan?" I asked with a smirk. She turned to face me and I had to make an effort at playing it cool when I knew full well and good that she was naked inside that 5-foot tall shower stall. Jordan turned to look at me, her teeth chattering coldly.   
"Jordan get out of there! You're lips are dark blue." I said and she put stuck her sudsy shampoo covered head under the shower only long enough to rinse it out. Then she quickly turned off the shower and asked me to grab her a towel. I did so and walked outside to the stall to hand it to her. She took the towel from me over the top of the stall and I turned my back while she dried off. Then, when I heard the stall door creak open, I turned back and she was tightening the top of the towel around herself. She looked up and smiled at me then proudly sauntered by me. 

'That woman is gonna be the death of me.', I thought shaking my head as Jordan entered the house. She said she would be out in a minute and I hurried into my room to find my bathing suit.  

I changed as fast as I could and hurried out to the shed to dig up the boards. When I found a starter board for Jordan, I picked it up under my left arm and grabbed one for myself under my right arm. I ran to the waters edge and placed Jordan's board standing in the sand before running out into the waves. I sensed Jordan walking over just as I was paddling to catch up with what I hoped was a good wave. It was nice but not perfect. I caught the wave, stood up and rode the curl. When it finally broke, I settled down into the water and then straddled my board and flipped my hair out of the way. Jordan was standing next to her board, arms crossed and smiling. I waved to her and beckoned her in. She shook her head and called for me to come in. I rolled my eyes and lay flat on my stomach to paddle in. 

"What's the matter?" I asked sitting up on my board again as I got closer in to the beach. 

"I barely know what to do here Wood, you're gonna have to help a little more than that!" She said picking up her board. I was too busy looking her over and admiring the two-piece bikini she was wearing. 

"You know Jordan, bikinis are very impractical for surfing." I said with a smirk and Jordan waded into the chilly water and laid her board on the surface. 

"Well, Woody, YOU picked it out for me so it's your own stupid fault." She said smiling and tried to sit on her board like I was. I took her by the arm gently and pulled it forward. She got the idea and lay on her stomach. 

"Okay, now are you gonna make fun of me or are you gonna pay attention and listen to what I tell you?" I asked seriously. Jordan nodded. 

"I'll be good." She said gripping the front of her board. I nodded, pleased with her response, and pulled up closer to her. 

**"**okay, now first thing is paddling." I said laying down on my board as well. Jordan mimicked my position. 

"Your paddle stroke should be essentially like a crawl swimming stroke. Center yourself on the board," I said and Jordan did her best to find the center of balance in her board, "keep your legs straight behind you, with the board nose level with the water surface." I said and Jordan nodded and followed my directions. "Now try paddling, like I said, just like a crawl swimming stroke." I said and Jordan imitated the stroke. 

"Good, good…you got it." I said and we both smiled happily. "Now, lets try and get out a little further…I think you can handle the real waves…now you're not gonna find the wave you want every time so just wait a few out and see what is coming, it will also give you a chance to get used to the feel of the ocean." I said as we paddled out a little and rode over a few waves. I told Jordan that she needed to turn so that she was parallel with the shore now and she followed how I turned. 

"Okay, now here comes a little wave, it's good to start on one like that. Here it comes, now you are gonna feel yourself surge forward a little and that means you caught the wave, now stop paddling and hold onto the sides of the board and let it take you a little…now you're gonna do like a push-up still holding on and kind of pop you're feet forward, DON'T kneel just go right to your feet. And keep in the center now, keep in the center!" Jordan followed my instructions easily and I told her to slowly rise into a crouching position which she did, albeit a little wobbly. And she rode the wave in. It wasn't a very attractive looking ride, but she made it about 10 feet before she fell. When she came up I was right beside her and cheering her on. 

"That was great Jordan! Most people fall off the second they stand up! You did great! Hop back on!" I said and she smiled ear-to-ear, happy that she was getting a lot of praise. She climbed back onto her board and followed me back out past the foamies. We spent the rest of the afternoon intermittently surfing and swimming. As the sun was going down, we were having a catch with an old football of my brother's and mine I found in the shed. Jordan seemed tired so I told her to go grab a shower and I was gonna surf a little more before dinner. When Jordan waved me in to let me know she was finished with the shower, I waved back and caught my last wave of the day and rode it in to the shore. I carried my board up and left it beside the hammock standing so it could dry. By the time I grabbed a towel and headed out to the shower, it was already dark out. I smiled at Jordan who was frying up some shrimp and French fries. She smiled back and as I was rounding the corner to the shower, I heard her say thank you. I turned back to her and threw the towel over my shoulder. 

"Huh?" I asked pretending I hadn't heard her.   
"I said Thank you. I haven't had this much fun 

in only two days in….well, longer than I can remember." She said sincerely and I nodded. Then, with a gracious smile, headed to the shower. I was to hungry to even go in and dress before we ate and I just hurried to the table with the towel wrapped around me. Jordan chuckled and shook her head at me. 

"Are you hungry little boy?" She asked as I placed plates and glasses of water on the table. I nodded vigorously and leaned forward, turning the little radio in the middle of the table on. Jordan smiled and placed the food on the table. We each took heaping plates of shrimp and fries as we talked hurriedly about what tomorrow would bring. I told Jordan about the local sight seeing activities that were further towards the center of the island and we decided we would hit them tomorrow. I noticed Jordan was beat and told her to go lay down and I would finish cleaning up the table. She nodded and yawned. Before she went in though, she came over to where I was sitting and I stood quickly. Jordan smiled and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around my bare shoulders. I relaxed into her soft skin and sighed heavily. When she pulled back, she looked into my eyes for a long moment. I started to protest because I knew what was coming but before the words could leave my mouth, Jordan smothered them with her lips. We kissed long and deep and when Jordan reached for the edges of my towel, I pulled back. 

"Jordan," I said warningly. She narrowed her eyes in confusion at me. I pulled back a little and smiled weakly. "We have to see each other for the next week and a half." I said stepping back away from her a little. She nodded, understanding that I wanted to take this a little slower than she was clearly planning on. 

"Goodnight Woody." She said smiling and I kissed her softly on the lips one last time that night. 

"Goodnight Jordan." I said smiling and released her arms. She turned and headed into the house and I sat down with a huff. Another shower was just about in order for me. 

The next day we ate breakfast casually while we went over what we were going to do that day.   
 "And then we'll come back here for dinner by about 7 right?" Jordan asked raising her eyes from the list we had made the day before. I smiled and looked shyly down at the table and shook my head. 

"No? We're not coming back here for dinner?" She asked hopefully. I nodded. 

"I made a call…how do you feel about Mexican food tonight?" I asked quietly. Jordan clapped her hands softly and we raced for the door. 

Later that night, we were dragging bags of souvenirs for our friends around with us. 

"Did you think we had this many friends, Jordan?" I asked playfully as we dragged the heavy bags up the stairs of the restaurant. We checked our bags into a convenient little room designed specifically for the purpose of temporarily housing the heaping tourists' souvenir bags. We were seated almost immediately and Both ordered fajitas which we had to make ourselves, and which led to some sporadic childish laughter on both our parts as they constantly fell apart on us. There was a dance floor in the middle of the room and music started to play about halfway through our meal. I was sipping a beer and looked over at Jordan, bent on asking her to dance. She was already standing with her hand out for me to take. I stood and took her hand leading her out onto the floor where a few other couples were already slowly dancing. The song was something local and had a reggae feel to it. When the song finished, another immediately began. More couples joined us on the floor as Jimmy Buffet's smooth voice flowed out of the speakers singing about Margarita Ville. I held Jordan close to me as we swayed with the music and she tucked her forehead under my chin, trying to get as close to me as she could. I wrapped her arms around my middle and wrapped my own around her shoulders as we continued to sway. Then I pulled back a little, waiting for Jordan to look up at me and allow me to test the waters of my newly acquired permission to touch her. When she finally looked up into my eyes, I leaned forward and kissed her lips softly. Jordan returned the kiss and smiled before laying her head back down against my chest. 

We walked back to the house hand in hand. We were quiet most of the way, just enjoying each other's company and then, 

"So when do I get to hear about the boy that changed Jordan Cavanaugh's life?" I asked and Jordan smiled. I let her think for a moment. 

"Holden Caulfield." She said and I stopped walking and looked at her puzzled. "The Catcher in The Rye?" She asked searching my eyes for a sign that I knew what she was talking about. 

"Yeah, I know who he is." I said with a chuckle. Jordan nodded and we kept on walking. 

"I read that book when I was a kid and…it changed my life…" She said with a laugh. "Kinda silly huh?" she asked and I shook my head. 

"Not at all. A lot of people can identify with that character. Young kid, little direction in his life…runs away from problems a lot of the time." I said looking out at the lights along the street. 

"It was more than that…When I read that…I wished that I could have been the Catcher in the Rye…trying to protect children from knowing what a drag being an adult was…I had…been an adult for so long…after my mom died…probably even before that while she was sick…I was always trying to learn how to do adult things and be involved in the adult world that my dad had told me didn't concern me. It was always, 'you're just a little girl Jordan, you don't understand adult problems.' So after a while, I made it a point to learn about what these adult things were. So that he would accept me into that world. But he never really has, he gets mad when I talk about my mom's murder. He even asked me a little while ago if I ever thought about how my life would be if I didn't spend all of my time obsessing over my mother's murder." She said and I hissed through my teeth. 

"Ouch." I said squeezing her hand a little. Jordan nodded. "I think that…you're dad is so used to trying to shield you from everything concerning your mother's death, that he doesn't realize it is causing the "No" affect." I said and Jordan looked at me. 

"The NO effect?" She asked raising an eyebrow at me. I nodded. 

"Yeah, the "no" effect." I could tell that Jordan was lost so I tried to think of an example. "Okay, so when I was a kid, there was this rope swing that was hung over about a 40 ft cliff that went into creek near my house. And when I was about 8 or 9, my dad said something to me about staying away from that rope and that he didn't want to hear I had been on it. The thing is, I never thought to go on it before. Ever, honestly. I wasn't that adventurous of a young kid. But, when my dad said that I couldn't go on it, then I wanted to. Not because I wanted to piss him off, but it was just the simple fact of doing something I wasn't supposed to. Your dad has tried to get you to forget your mother's murder by saying that he doesn't want you to talk about it, and it's probably all you can think about most of the time. Right?" I said and Jordan nodded. 

"But now you have me to talk about it with, so do you think that maybe you can allow yourself to consider some other aspects of your life?" I asked and Jordan smiled and rolled her eyes. 

"Like what?" She asked and I looked all around me for the answer. 

"Like…like…kid stuff…yeah…kid stuff that you never got to do. You give me a list and we'll do it all this coming week. I said as we walked up the little path to my uncle's place.   
"But you have to do one tonight…so think of a good one." I said playfully and Jordan regarded my question carefully. 

"Ummmm…..well our little breakdown in the desert aside….I've never camped out for real." She said and I nodded. 

"Okay then, you go get the blankets and I'll build a little fire out back." I said and Headed to the back of the house. I found some beach wood and piled it up far enough from the house that we wouldn't wake up beside ruins, and then made a little pile next to where Jordan would place the blankets. She slipped out the back door shortly later, and I took her comforter from her and laid it out on the sand. Without a word, Jordan flopped two pillows down next to each other on it and then laid another blanket on top. I snuck into the house and changed into a pair track pants and an undershirt and then grabbed a box of gram crackers, a bag of marshmallows and two Hershey bars on my way out. Jordan was sitting in the middle of the blankets and she held out a roasting stick to me which I took gratefully and then sat down next to her and opened the bag of marshmallows.

Another chapter by tomorrow morning I swear!! 


	3. Chapter 3

Uncrossing Jordan---CHAPTER 3---

*****Strong Sexual Content*** please be advised….

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When I woke up in the morning, Jordan was in my arms. I ran my hands up and down her back, over the cotton of her t-shirt. I could tell she was awake but neither of us moved.   
"Bet you never woke up cuddling with one of your Boy Scout buddies after camping?" Jordan said suddenly and my body wracked with quiet chuckles. 

"No…can't say I did." I said laughing and Jordan rolled over, stretching as she looked out at the late morning sun. 

"Boy, we really slept." I said sitting up and stretching and popping. Jordan rolled over and sat up while I hopped to my feet and ran to the kitchen. When I returned, I was carrying a bowl of fruit and a box of Cheerios in one arm and two bowls and spoons and I carton of milk in the other. Jordan stood and took them from me setting them down on the blankets in front of us. She picked up a spoon and then looked at it closer when something popped into her head.

"What?" I asked sitting Indian style and heaping spoonfuls of cereal into my mouth. Jordan nodded. 

"Got another one." She said and it took me a minute to realize that she meant another childhood thing she had never done.

"And what's that?" I asked setting down my bowl. 

"I could never do that hanging the spoon from your nose thing." She said giving it a try. I chuckled and took my own spoon out of the bowl and dried it off on my shirt. 

"It's all in the perspiration." I said breathing on the inside of the spoon and trying myself to hang the spoon from my nose. I got it to stick finally and said, "Taddaa!" to which Jordan chuckled and finally managed to get her spoon to stick. We looked at each other, having each just seen the other go cross-eyed to see their spoon and broke into a fit of chuckles. 

"So what do you wanna do today Jordan, a little more surfing maybe, snorkeling, take the boat out for some fishing?" I said and Jordan looked over at the rickety boat next to the other side of the house. 

"Are you sure that thing'll float?" She asked with a smile. 

"Of course it will! And besides, we're not going out that far anyway." I said and Jordan jumped to her feet. 

"Sure! Why not." She said and went into the house to get changed. I cleaned up our breakfast and decided to just stay in what I was wearing and rolled up the pant legs of my silky track pants. When Jordan came back out I had already put the fishing poles in the boat and pushed it to the edge of the water. She spotted me and shook her head as she walked over to the boat laughing at my pants. I pretended to ignore her and she threw a bag of corn in the boat.

"Corn, Jordan? This is deep sea fishing…corn is not gonna work." I said offering her my hand and helping her get into the boat. I threw my uncle's expensive, lure filled tackle box into the boat and hopped in after pushing the boat into the water. 

  
"This is deep sea fishing Jordan. Corn won't catch you anything." Jordan said deepening her voice as she held us the string of sea bass she had nabbed in the past two hours. I sighed and looked down at the one little baby bass on my rope and petted it dramatically. 

"Oh shut up." I said playfully. "Or I won't share my catch with you for dinner this week." I said warningly. 

"Why don't you just leave that out for the little stray cat that keeps hanging around the house?" Jordan said playfully back and I shot her a mock angry look to which she broke into laughter. 

"Would you keep it down?! You're voice is scaring away all of my fish!" I said laughing and Jordan threw a handful of corn at my head. A few pieces stuck to my face and I squished my face up as Jordan broke out into full-fledged laughter now.   
I jumped forward and sacked her to the floor of the boat, tickling her. Jordan screeched with laughter and I kept asking her if it was funny anymore. She finally called a truce after about 20 seconds and I backed away from her confident in my manly abilities. I looked around to see where we had drifted to and noticed a cave a little ways off in the distance. Jordan didn't see it. I asked her if she wanted to go back to shore now having successfully demeaned my manhood. She just laughed again and agreed. 

We were both to full from the meal the night before to eat anything real big for dinner so we just had some oatmeal around 9 o'clock while sitting in the hammock together again.  I was laying with one foot out of the hammock which I was using to swing us. Jordan was nestled snuggly in the crook of my arm with one leg thrown over my inactive one. We were chatting for the first time in four days about home. Just wondering what our friends were doing, joking about what they probably figured WE were doing. Then somehow we got on the subject of the skinny dipping scene in "Jaws" and Jordan suddenly had an epiphany. 

"Woody? Can I inquire into YOUR missed childhood events for a second?" Jordan asked and I was mildly concerned with where this was going. 

"Ummm…..uh huh…." I said quietly and Jordan lifted her head from my chest, a Grinch-like smile on her lips. 

"Have YOU ever gone skinny dipping?" She asked and I thanked the quarter moon for shedding little light on the redness of my cheeks. I was quiet a minute, looking out at the water.   
"No, Jordan…I have never gone skinny dipping before." I said with a smirk and Jordan slowly rolled off of the hammock leaving me alone in it. 

"So….you wanna?" She asked childishly and poked me in the ribs with her pointer finger. I slumped further into the hammock and Jordan pulled on my hand. 

"Oh come on Wood! I promise NOT to molest you…much." She said and I shifted uncomfortably in the hammock. Before I could open my mouth to say no, Jordan was yanking me along the sand towards the ocean. When we got to the edge of the water, I let the water rush around my bare toes. It was as warm as bath water. 

I sighed, cursing the hot day's sun for leaving me no excuse to not go in. I turned and looked both ways up the beach making sure that none of the far off neighbor's were taking a summer stroll along the shore.  I was too caught up in my visual recon of the beach that I hadn't noticed Jordan stepping towards me. She was inches from my face and I looked down at the sand briefly. 

She brought her hand up to my waist where my pants separated from my undershirt and let her right hand travel slowly up under my shirt and along my abdomen. She stopped her hand over my heart and feeling it racing fiercely, smiled. 

"Relax Woody, I want this." She said and I looked nervously off over the ocean. 

"Are you sure? Because I'm not sure you do. And…and …I'm worried that…" she cut in softly. 

"What are you worried about?" She asked letting her other hand slide up my chest as well. 

"I'm worried…that…that…you think…this…is why I brought you hear." I said sadly. Jordan stepped up on her tip-toes and whispered into my ear. 

"I know you, Woody, and…because I know you, I know that this isn't why you brought me hear." She said and kissed from my neck down to my chest. I lifted her chin and looked into her eyes.   
"But do you really want this now?" I asked and Jordan smiled. 

"Well, I was thinking we could still play in the water for a little first?" she asked and I was happy that she wasn't rushing. That's how I could tell that she was thinking clearly. I smiled and answered her by helping her pull off my shirt. Jordan let her board shorts fall to the ground and then pulled her tank top over her head before running into the gentle waves. I laughed and took off after her, tripping all the way in as I yanked my pants off and threw them onto the sand. Jordan was wading up to about her neck, so I knew that I still had a ways to go before I couldn't stand anymore. I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. She leaned back against me and a rush of warmth spread over me. Jordan must have felt it to, because she turned to face me. She smiled in the moonlight and reached up to trace my jaw with the salty water from her fingertips. I looked up at the moon and Jordan trailed her finger slowly down my throat and to the dry cleft between my collar bones. Water pooled there and Jordan leaned forward and kissed along the trail. I lowered my head again and kissed the top of her head where her hair parted. I brought my arms up out of the water and laid them softly down against the cool skin of her bare back and trailed my fingers up and down her spine, running my fingertips over each bump in her spine. Jordan shivered and I pulled back to look in her eyes.   
 "Are you cold?" I whispered hoarsely and Jordan smiled and looked up at me again. 

"It's not the cold it's the company." She said quietly and I leaned forward capturing her lips gently with my front teeth. Jordan moaned into my mouth and that only served to arouse me more. I pulled her into my arms and pressed my body to hers. This time I moaned and Jordan's arms encircled my neck and she pulled herself up around me. Just as she wrapped her legs around my waist, I began to feel cold trickles on my shoulders. I stopped kissing Jordan. 

"What?" She asked trying to steady her breathing. I was trying to catch my own breath as I looked up into the dark night sky. 

It had started to rain. Before I could even open my mouth, the heaven's opened up and it began to pour. 

"OHHH!! WHY!!??" I yelled as Jordan chuckled, letting go of me and heading for the shore. I stayed, set on venting my frustrations to God. 

"Jordan pulled on her shorts and tank top, then turned and yelled at me. 

"Woody! Will you come in here!" She yelled over the pelting of rain into the ocean. I  ignored her and continued to shake my fist at the sky. 

"Why!? When all I've ever been is a good person!? I'm a COP! I help people! Can't you for once help me!?" I yelled and Jordan laughed. I watched her heading back to the house. 

"Oh well, guess I'll just go to sleep then." She said loud enough for me to hear. I stopped my ranting and took into consideration my current situation. I was standing in the ocean, in the rain, yelling at God, naked. And I was alone. Then I remembered what had been about to happen right before I started yelling and high tailed it outta the ocean, pulling my pants on as I ran slipping and falling multiple times as I went. Jordan was already long in the house and when I finally got into the living room through the back door, she wasn't there anymore. I decided to catch my breath and make my impending entrance into her room a little less bumbling and clumsy. I slicked my hair back in the living room mirror and took a deep breath before heading down the hall to Jordan's room. 

I rounded the corner of her door and almost let out a very unman like squeal. Jordan was laying on her side in bed, obviously undressed and leaning on the palm of one hand. The white sheets were pulled up under her armpits and her wet hair was falling tousled around her face. She had lit several candles around the room and soft reggae music was flowing from the radio on the dresser. Jordan raised her free hand and beckoned me over with her pointer finger. I looked around the room. Her clothes were balled on the floor and all of the shudders of the windows in the room were opened, the soft sound of the rain flowing into the room. I smiled at Jordan and ran a hand through my wet hair again. 

"You're definitely sure about this?" I asked one last time and Jordan threw her head back on the pillows.   
"Get over here Farm Boy before I kick your ass." She said staring at the ceiling smiling. That was enough for me. I dropped my track pants and slid playfully under the covers at the bottom of the bed and crawled up along side of Jordan as she chuckled a deep sexy chuckle that drove me crazy. As I popped out from the cool, cotton sheets, Jordan rolled to her side again and nuzzled my cheek with her nose. I laughed and rolled on top of her gently pinning her wrists into the fluffy down mattress. I looked into her eyes from on top of her and they were bright with desire. I bowed my head down to hers and let my forehead rest against hers before tilting my chin ever so slightly to catch her lips with mine. I bit her lip softly again and Jordan raised her hips to mine. I gently guided them back down onto the bed and slipped my knee between her thighs to part them. She complied eagerly and I settled myself between them. Jordan rose against me again and this time I didn't tease her. I've never been with anyone like I was…am with Jordan. It sounds silly even to think it in my head but it's true. We complimented each other perfectly, knowing exactly what the other wanted without ever asking. I remembered everything about that night from the gentle tapping of the rain on the roof, to the noise Jordan made when I grazed my teeth along her shoulder. 

The next morning, I slipped quietly out of bed and pulled a blanket from the floor to wrap around me. I went out to the hammock and sat softly back into it. My legs were longer than the blanket and from my knees down hung over the canvas. I gently swung myself and the rope creaked against the palm trees. I watched the sunrise over the ocean and sighed. I hadn't been so happy in a long time. Not just because I had slept with Jordan, but happy that I had sort of finally made it to the prom. I found the girl of my dreams and last night, she had told me she loved me and I had returned the gesture. It wasn't in the throws of passion, or immediately after our bodies had parted. It was hours later as we lay still awake, and I was holding her hand possessively to my chest.  She was teasing me about going back to Wisconsin now that I had lost the promotion and I laughed.   
"Nah, you're stuck with me for good. They could demote me to a desk clerk and I would still stay in Boston with you." I said tickling her side. Jordan suddenly rolled to her stomach and smiled at me. 

"I love you." She said, like it was a birthmark she hadn't noticed on me before. I smiled and ran my hand through her soft curly hair. 

"I love you too, Jordan." I said and she lay her head on my chest and fell asleep. 

I was ruminating on this while sitting in the hammock and then Jordan popped her head out the screen door at me. She had pulled some blankets off the bed to wrap around herself as well.   
"Hey, we could almost make our own bed out here." I said grinning. Jordan waddled over to the hammock and jumped on me. I let out an "oof" and Jordan smiled self-satisfactorily. 

"So," I said nudging Jordan and wrapping my arms around her again as I squinted in the light of the rising red sun. Feel like that swim now?" I asked and yawned. 

"Aren't you worried the neighbors might be sitting in the bushes a mile off, with their long-range binoculars Wood?" She asked sarcastically and I stood quickly out of the hammock with Jordan swaddled in my arms, poised to race for the water. "Nah, they're used to it."  I said hoisting Jordan up a little higher as she giggled. She took my chin and turned my face to hers. "I thought you said that you'd never gone skinny dipping before?" She said softly kissing my lips. I smiled. 

"I haven't…now Uncle Jimmy on the other hand…" I said and playfully nudged Jordan's nose with mine before bolting for the water and throwing Jordan into the waves. 


	4. Chapter 4

Un-Crossing Jordan---CHAPTER 4

R for STRONG sexual content…sorry kiddos…lol….

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Later we walked in town together, making sure there wasn't a single souvenir shop we hadn't hit. I took Jordan to lunch on a sail boat we rented and made it a point to find that cave I'd seen the third day we were there. I pointed it out to Jordan and she took note of how close it was to "our" beach. I just smiled and let it slide that I had seen it earlier. I pulled the boat up around the side of the cave and helped Jordan to step from the ship to the rocky outer layer of the caves. She pulled me onto the rocks and I had to catch my balance. Jordan laughed at my "sea legs" and I followed her down into the mouth of the cave. 

"WOW! This is amazing!" Jordan said exasperated and pulled my arm to get me into the cave. I looked around at the shimmering walls and Jordan laughed. "Close you're mouth Wood, some cave bats might fly in there." She said and I slowly clenched my jaws together and smiled at her. We made our way carefully along the cave walls, moving further back into the little system. 

"Wow, this goes back really far." I said and my voice echoed off of the cave walls. I smiled and "Whooed" smiling back at Jordan when it echoed off of the walls. I continued along the wall and Jordan held onto my shoulder as we walked. 

"that sound is never not cool." I said chuckling and Jordan stopped me with a hand heavily on my shoulder. I turned to see what was wrong, and she was right in front of me. 

"You know what else I bet sounds cool in here." She said raising her eyebrows suggestively. I looked around the cave and then looked back at Jordan incredulously. 

"What do you think I am, a MACHINE!?" I asked and 'machine' echoed throughout the cave. Jordan and I laughed together and I stepped forward, playfully pinning her to the cave wall. She let her hands slide up my back and gripped my shoulders. She traced the freckled paths on my shoulders and kissed my arm as I lost myself in her hair. 

"You're so…freckly." Jordan said softly and I chuckled. 

"Yeah, I noticed that too…" I said and kissed up the side of her neck and then moved to her lips. "And you are so…soft." I said grazing my lips across hers. Jordan moaned and the echo made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I pulled her against me and turned so that my back was to the wall. We messed around a little and then Jordan grabbed tightly onto either side of my cargo shorts. I pulled back a little bit, laughing nervously. 

"We can't do THAT here!" I said shaking my head at Jordan. She looked down between us then back up at me. 

"Well I think we both know THAT'S not true." She said and I rolled my eyes. 

"You're insane you know that?" I said giddily and Jordan shrugged her shoulders. 

"So they tell me." She said and seized my lips, pulling me against her on the cave wall. 

Later that night, we danced together on the back porch, the music of Jimmy Buffet continuing to flow from the radio inside. Jordan was swaying gently in my arms and I was wondering if anything could ever make me as happy as I had been this week with Jordan. She must have been thinking the same thing, because she tightened her arms around me and sighed saying, 

"Can't we just stay here forever Wood? Write our letters of resignation on the backs of postcards…put them in a bottle and chuck those babies out to sea?" She asked smiling against my chest. I blinked my eyes slowly and sighed. 

"Sounds like a nice idea…but without the two of us, who would take over the responsibility of single handedly tracking down the scum of Boston…and who could ever fill your place as 'the voice of the dead' and carry out the task of finding their killers even at cost of their own lives? That takes a certain level of dedicated madness you know." I said as we spun in lazy circles around the porch. 

"Ahh…much madness is divinest sense." Jordan quoted proudly and I rolled my eyes. 

"Emily Dickinson, Jordan? Try not to take advice about life from a lady who killed herself…" I said and Jordan huffed. 

"Hey, that makes sense…sometimes the most outlandish approach to a question gets you to the answer more quickly. Think outside the box, Woodrow…might do your rigid inability to see my point of view some good." She said and then pulled back and kissed me to let me know she was kidding. 

"And maybe if you tried to restrict yourself to the confines of your profession, I could do my job without fear of getting fired due to your 'thinking outside the box'." I said and kissed HER to let my kidding known. 

We spent the rest of the night sitting in the hammock reminiscing about home. As much fun as we were both having, and as beautiful and peaceful as it was, we were getting homesick. We hadn't even found the time to call anyone over the course of the time we had been there. Three more days and we would be heading home to Boston. 

The next morning I woke up in the hammock and Jordan wasn't next to me. I panicked briefly, looking dazedly around the beach. I spotted her standing at the waters edge. She must have heard the ropes of the hammock creak and she turned quickly and beckoned me to join her. I popped and stretched and then meandered down to the water. Jordan held out her hand eagerly and I took it. 

"What are we looking at?" I asked groggily and Jordan smiled, all but hopping up and down on the sand. 

"Dolphins Woody! Look!" She said excitedly and pointed out at the obvious fins bobbing up and down as they moved along the waves. There were about 6 that I could count. 

"Oh yeah, I guess there are!" I said excitedly and covered my eyes from the bright orange sun, which still hung a little below the waves. We stood silently watching them, each too engaged in watching the pod to speak. After about 5 minutes, they were pretty far gone down the beach and Jordan shook her head. 

"That was awesome! Do they always come that close around here?" She asked and I pulled her backwards into my arms.   
"Only when they see a pretty lady on the beach." I said charmingly and Jordan rolled her eyes.   
"Oooo…good one Wood." She said laying her head back against my chest and laughing. We stood for a few minutes until the sun was just sitting on top of the waves. 

"So, what do you wanna do today?" I asked and Jordan sighed.

"Well, let's see…what is left on my list of childhood SLASH," She emphasized, referring to the word I had added to her growing list "teenage things I have never done and just so that you know, there is still a matter of making up to me for what you WOULDN'T do in that cave yesterday." She said and pulled the worn piece of paper out of my pocket and looked it over. I just rolled my eyes and nodded, in no way feeling like less of a man for having declined to partake in certain activities in such a questionably sanitary place. Jordan ignored me, continuing to look over her list. 

"Hmmmm….oh oh!! PUDDLES!" Jordan yelled happily. Looking down at the sand still wet from the rain. 

"What the jumping in puddles thing? We have to go into town for that." I said and Jordan just nodded hurriedly and pulled me towards the house. I looked up at the sky as we reached the back door.

"If there aren't any puddles now,"I said smiling weakly at the ominous dark clouds heading toward the island, "There probably will be by the time we get to town." I said following Jordan into the house. We changed quickly into clothes we didn't mind potentially getting ruined by mud puddles and headed in on the motorcycle. 

Half an hour later, we were sloshing down the once dusty streets in the pouring rain. Jordan hopped happily along in the mud and I trudged next to her cold, wet and generally not in a great mood. Jordan hopped up along side of me and smacked me in the back of the head. 

"Ouch! What was that for?!" I yelled over the rain. Jordan squinted through her wet bangs. 

"You're not having fun! This is supposed to be fun! If you were 5 you would be hopping right along with me!" She said smiling as we came to a row of about 6 man hole shaped puddles. I smiled finally, remembering something from my childhood. 

"Hey Jordan, watch this!" I yelled and jumped into the first puddle. She hopped in next to me and smiled. I smiled and opened my mouth. 

"Whiiiiiiiich…..one of these puddles is not like the others," I sung happily and hopped to the next one and then the next, Jordan right along side of me laughing. 

"Sesame Street Wood?" She asked still laughing. I took her hand and we jumped into the next one. 

"Whiiiiiich….one of these puddles just isn't the same…" I sung proudly as we leapt into the next puddle…and plummeted straight to our necks in murky, muddy water. Jordan screeched and I grabbed her arm instinctively and held her up so that her head was above the water level. I turned and looked at her angrily. I wouldn't be surprised if smoke had been fuming out of my ears. Jordan was trying her best not to laugh by biting her lip. 

"I guess this one wasn't the same." She said and finally began to howl with laughter. I tried my best not to laugh but a chuckle rose up from deep within me. I let go of Jordan's arm and pushed her head briefly under the cold rain water. When she popped back up, she was breathing heavily. 

"I can't believe you just did that!!" she said and jumped forward pushing my head under as well. We splashed around continuing to laugh and cover each other in mud. 

Fifteen minutes later, we were back on the motorcycle looking not un-like Aborigines and grinning away as the wind dried the mud hard to our bodies. By the time we got back to the house it was dark and neither of us made any plans to go in the house yet. I built a fire out back and when I was finished I looked up to find Jordan standing next to the shower having thrown two towels over the towel rack next to it. I looked up and smiled at her as she leaned against the shower stall with one hand, her entire self still covered in a thin layer of mud. I stood from making the fire and ran a hand through my hair, which was spiky and sticking up from he mud. Jordan chuckled as she looked me over. 

"You look like you could use a bath." She said as I strolled over to her looking down at my dark brown arms and legs. I tried to pull my shirt away from my stomach a little and it held tightly on, the mud had made a sort of glue. I chuckled. 

"You too." I said reaching out to touch a strand of her crispy mud caked hair. Jordan smiled. "I seem to remember something about owing you one…for well, backing out in the cave if I remember correctly." I said and Jordan pulled open the door to the shower stall. I looked from the shower to Jordan and then back to the shower. 

"After you." She said with a leer. I sighed and stepped in and turned on the shower. Jordan stepped in behind me. 

"Hey it's pretty close quarters in here…and very improbable that we will get clean if…we're…" Jordan stepped closer to me and I backed up under the running water. It was actually warm. "Oh." I said the point Jordan was making finally dawning on me. She pushed me until I hit the back of the stall and stopped with a jolt. Jordan was more under the shower than I was now and the water was gradually washing away the mud from her face. 

"Oh there you are." I said teasingly and stepped forward a little allowing the water to wash my face as well. Jordan brought her hands up and ran them through my hair to wash away the mud clinging to it. I did the same, running my fingers through the tight clumped curls that fell around her shoulders. The mud slid easily out and onto the stone floor under us. I looked down briefly to make sure the mud was draining out the side of the stall. When I looked back up, Jordan leaned forward and began to kiss me. I kissed her back and we both let our hands wander up and down the other, washing away mud as we went. This time I took the lead and pulled Jordan's shirt over her head. I chuckled a little when in the firelight that was slipping under the stall,  I could see that Jordan's once pearl white bra was nearly black. She smiled and I reached behind her searching for the clasp. Jordan chuckled, noting my frustrations and took my hands with hers behind her back and slid them back around to the front. I looked down between us at the now obvious front clasp. 

"Oops." I said with a giggle and popped the front clasp open with a snap. Jordan let the bra fall to the ground and I kicked it away under the about foot high opening under the stall. Then Jordan reached around my waist and pulled my tank top up over my head. She slid her hands all over my chest and shoulders and even once playfully jabbed a finger into my navel to dig out some mud that had gathered there. I let my own hands make their way from Jordan's slender hips, up her sides, around the curve of her breasts and finally to her shoulders and collarbones. Jordan arched her back towards me. That was permission enough for me. I let my hands slip suddenly to her waist and unzipped her jean shorts. Jordan's hands slipped around mine to reach the drawstrings of my pants. She slowly pulled the tie and without realizing it, my hips moved involuntarily towards her hands. I could see a flash of a smile creep across Jordan's face, and I tried to pull back but she tugged on the strings and pulled my hips back towards her. I reached out my arms and pulled Jordan against me under the spray of the shower. It took me a second but I managed to get my fingertips into the back of her open jeans and I slid them down, letting them fall to the ground. When I heard them hit the ground with a soggy plop, I let my hands slide further down Jordan's backside and abruptly lifted her into my arms and let her feet free of the wet clothes. She wrapped her legs around my waist just above my shorts and then proceeded to use her thighs to jerk my untied pants down to the ground. I smiled against her lips as we kissed and then slowly lifted her back up around me causing a moan to escape my lips this time. I think Jordan was planning on moving this to the bedroom but I was determined to re-enact the cave incident in much the same way as it would have gone. Jordan seemed surprised by my willingness, but didn't protest. I'm surprised no one called the police over all of the noise we were making. The sea was calm and the weekenders had gone home therefore, there was no sounds of civilization left to drown us out. Later, Jordan would tease me endlessly about the mood killing expletives that flowed forth from my mouth when I threw my head back and almost cracked my skull open on the metal showerhead. I hadn't realized that I was that tall or that I was that close to it. We finished quickly as the water was becoming increasingly cold on our heated bodies and I let Jordan slide to the ground. I stood back and leaned exhausted against the wall while Jordan grabbed us towels. I wrapped mine around my waist and Jordan snuggly wrapped hers around her body. She looked back expectantly at me as I remained leaning against the wall in my towel.   
"I'll…be in…in a second…I just need to…get my legs back." I said with a grin and steadied myself against the wall. Jordan winked self-satisfactorily.   
"You're welcome." She said playfully and rounded the corner of the house as I rolled my eyes. 

When I got back into the house Jordan was laying on the couch in my football Jersey. I smiled and slumped next to her on the couch. 

"Let's keep things like that inside and horizontal for a little while now okay?" I asked narrowing my eyes at Jordan.   
"Sure thing cowboy." She said and patted my knee softly. I smiled and nodded a thank you. We sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments and then Jordan spoke. 

"So, we have to go back tomorrow night huh?" she said sadly and I chuckled. "What?" she asked rolling over and laying her head against my bare chest. 

"You're like a little child." I said chidingly and Jordan sighed. 

"You didn't think so a few minutes ago." She said and wagged her eyebrows at me, leaning forward to nibble on my ear. I pulled gently away and shook my head.

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

"Don't even tell me YOU wouldn't rather stay here longer." She said sternly and jabbed her finger into my navel again, and then traced the line of hair that trailed down below my towel. I grabbed her hand gently and brought it to my lips. She turned her head, awaiting an answer. 

"I would rather stay here, drinking, surfing, fishing, swimming," I pulled her closer to me and whispered deeply, "and making love to you…than anything else in the world. I mean that Jordan. I really would." I said sincerely and Jordan looked into my eyes. 

"Then why go back?" She teased and I sat up on the couch and looked off out the window, the events preceding my bringing Jordan here rushing suddenly and painfully back. 

"Because…there comes a time when you have to grow up." I said and picked up the worn list summing up the missing events of Jordan's young life. I looked over my shoulder at her then back at the completely crossed off list. "A time…when…you have to let go of the past and enjoy the present." I said and looked back at her smiling and hoping she got the insinuation that I was the present. Instead, she looked away off out the window. 

"Well," She said quietly, standing from the couch. "The present is pretty late…so…I'm gonna go to bed." She said and I sighed heavily. 

"Wait Jordan…I didn't mean that…" I trailed off as she headed down the hall to her room. 

Twenty minutes later, I was lying in my bed. Alone. Our last night here together and I wasn't sleeping with Jordan in my arms. I looked out the window at the moon and wondered if I ever would sleep beside her again. I began to wonder all of the 'what ifs'. If I didn't do something to fix this tonight, we might return to Boston, pretending that these past two weeks never happened. Back in an environment where we hadn't been anything more than best friends, I worried that Jordan would retreat further into emotional seclusion and I would never again get through to her. I rolled over trying several times to find a comfortable position and knowing full well the only one I was going to find was across the hall, next to Jordan, finally stood and padded across the room. I didn't want to give Jordan the wrong idea or the easy way out of discussion so I pulled on a pair of shorts on my way out the door. I couldn't help smiling when I reached Jordan's door and found her sitting on the windowsill awake. 

She turned her head, sensing my presence in the room. I smiled at her through my mussed bangs and she smiled weakly back. 

"Woody, I don't wanna talk about…" I cut her off with a hush and strode to the window with her. 

"I don't want this to end Jordan. I don't want to go back to Boston and pretend like I don't have feelings for you.  I tried that; remember? It doesn't suit me. I tell the truth about everything." I said and sat down on the window sill facing her. Jordan smiled weakly and I decided to try and get a full smile out of her. 

"Boy Scout curse…I can't tell a lie." I said and finally she gave me a full smile. 

"You know I think I'm messed up about sex." She said suddenly still looking out at the dark ocean. I looked up at her puzzled. 

"What do you mean?" I asked toying with a stray thread on my shorts. Jordan sighed heavily and looked at me. 

"I…never had the sex talk with anyone…my mom was dead, and Dad told me he didn't say anything cause he was worried he'd scar me for life." She said seriously and I let a chuckle escape. Jordan smiled a little again and then continued with her story. 

"I told him…that…I thought maybe I was messed up already seeing as how I had to figure everything out for myself." She said and looked at me expectantly. 

"Well," I said with a sigh. "Who DID you learn about sex from?" I asked tentatively and Jordan sighed. "My friends. I have an eight grade view of what sex involves." She said sadly and looked down at her toes on the windowsill in front of her ashamed. I smiled and looked out the window myself. 

"So, who did YOU get that talk from?" Jordan asked and I chuckled.   
"I was lucky enough to get TWO of that talk." I said sarcastically and Jordan laughed. "One from my dad, which was pretty much just throwing a box of condoms on my desk when I was 14 and telling me if I got anyone pregnant he'd kick my ass, and then I got the REAL talk from my mom, which my dad never knew about and still doesn't to this day." I said chuckling and Jordan smiled at me like I was a little boy. I was probably blushing. 

"And what did your mom tell you?" Jordan asked and I got the feeling that she was genuinely curious to hear a mom view on the subject. I sighed and thought back for a minute to what we had discussed. 

"Well," I began and ran a hand through my hair thinking, "My dad was out this one night, I think Cal had a baseball game and I was too busy with homework to go, so I was all spread out on the living room floor with my books and my mom called me out onto the porch. She was sitting on the porch swing and I sat down next to her. I had my first girlfriend when I was 14 and I think she thought it was about time I had all the facts so that when it came time for me to make that decision, to or not to, then I would know exactly WHAT I was making a decision about and what all of the emotions and feelings were that were attached to sex." I stopped and looked over at Jordan who was watching me, listening intently. 

"I mean of course she started off with the basics of WHAT sex was, but she took that extra step in telling me what a person is SAYING by choosing to have sex with someone. She said that, sex wasn't just about feeling good and releasing all of that built up sexual tension. She said that it was about giving a part of yourself to another person. She said that it was like saying to that person you know, 'here's just me. No possessions, no money, no expensive gifts. Here is just me. Here is my naked body. I want you to have just me and I want just you.' And she said that when I found someone that I loved enough that I wanted to be that close to them and for them to be that close emotionally and physically to me, then it was right. And I think I understand what she means. Because…" 

I trailed off not sure if I wanted to travel the road of my sexual past with Jordan. I hesitated as Jordan looked unwavering at me, expecting nothing but the truth from me. So I decided to give it to her. 

"I have only found two women in my life that I have been that close to. One of them was Annie. The other…IS you." I said a little bashfully wondering how many 28-year-old guys could say that they have only ever been with two women in their life. When I looked up, there were tears in Jordan's eyes. Luckily they were happy tears. I started to open my mouth and say something but Jordan placed a finger on my lips and silenced me. 

"That…is the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to me. I think…that…you're mother is a very smart lady. And I feel…like… God…I don't even know where to start Woody…except with…thank you. Thank you for…caring enough for me to let me be that person your mother described to you…it makes me feel…like…I can't even tell you how that makes me feel." She said and I lifted her chin. 

"Don't ever feel like you aren't special Jordan. Because, even if no one else in the world sees it. I do. I love you. And I can tell you how special…it makes ME feel that I am the only one who really knows…that you're the most wonderful woman in the world. I have to admit that…I feel honored to be the person who knows your secret. Who knows who you REALLY are. Because I listen to everyone at the morgue, and in the precinct and I watch them shake their heads and try and to figure you out, and I can't help loving that I'm the only one who really gets you, and I am the only one who you'll let get that close." I said involuntarily puffing out my chest proudly. " I know you're heart Jordan." I said taking her cheek with one hand. She leaned forward a little and laid her hand on my chest above my heart. 

"And I know yours." She said smiling as a tear slid down her cheek. I wiped it away and Jordan laid her head against my chest as the wind picked up and a breeze swept through the swishing pine trees and into the room with us.

We sat silently in each others arms, still on the window sill for a few minutes longer. When I  realized that Jordan was breathing evenly, deeply asleep, I lifted her gently and placed her in the bed. I watched her sleeping for a minute then crawled in beside her and wrapped my arms possessively around her. A few moments later, I drifted off to sleep myself. 


	5. Chapter 5

Un-Crossing Jordan CHAPTER 5----final Chapter…

We woke up around the same time and just laid in each others arms for a while. I felt Jordan smile against my chest after a while. 

"What?" I asked groggily and Jordan lifted her head.   
"I forgot to put something on the list." She said and I rolled my eyes. 

"Uh-oh…and what might that be?" I asked tentatively and my answer was a rather violent thump over the head with a pillow. I sat up quickly in surprise as Jordan leapt off of the bed and ran out of the room. I smiled and shook my head, trying to make the little stars and birdies go away, then grabbed a pillow myself and took off after Jordan. Later that morning, we sat on the porch, me at the table, Jordan in the hammock and threw grapes back and forth at each other trying to feed each other the long distance way. 

"You know this would be a lot more fun if you came over and fed them to me from the vine." Jordan said raising an eyebrow at me. 

"Uhhhhh…I don't THINK so your highness…" I said chucking a grape her way and watching it land on her lap. Jordan just chuckled and stretched her arms above her. 

"We're crazy to be leaving this place Wood." Jordan said sadly and shook her head at the ocean. I nodded in agreement. 

"Yeah, you're probably right…but we're also crazy if we think that just because we're here all of our problems are solved back there." I said flipping my head out to sea, as if Boston were just over the horizon. Jordan sighed. 

"I really could never go back, Woody. I mean that. I would miss everyone, sure, but all I really need is here." She said turning her head charmingly towards me. I nodded and tried not to smile. 

"Do you know how often in the time we have been here you have said, 'Oh, Nigel would have thought that was hilarious!' or 'Bug would love the insect life here!', or 'Garrett would totally dig this little jazz club!' ?" I asked and Jordan looked off in the distance. 

"They're always on your mind Jordan. They're your family. You can't just abandon them. It wouldn't be fair." I said and stood creeping over to lay with Jordan. I wrapped her in my arms. 

"You're my family too Woody." She said kissing the inside of my bicep. Hearing her say that evoked warmth in the pit of my stomach that spread like a wildfire to the rest of my body. I snuggled deeper within the hammock and wrapped my arms more tightly around Jordan. She called me her family. I kissed her temple gently and sighed, a nagging thought suddenly being thrust to the front of my mind.  

"Jordan, I'm not gonna have to drag you onto the plane kicking and screaming am I?" I asked and Jordan was silent. I sat up a little. 

"Jordan, sweetie, aren't your legs tired yet?" I asked and she sighed apparently catching my drift. "I think we both learned in these past two weeks that running from your problems isn't the way to go." 

"But it is the easy way to go." She said honestly. 

"You're right. You're exactly 100% right. You ran from things for so many years. It broke their hearts Jordan. It broke your father's heart. I ran from Annie, and she'll probably never be able to fully forgive me in her heart. You ran from me for the past almost two years. And now we're together…we missed out on what could have been two really great years, Jordan. Running has done us a hell of a lot of good." I said sarcastically. "Problems don't just go away Jordan. They stay with you until you make them right. Staying here we would just be hiding out from those problems. But just like you can't forget you're friends back home, you can't forget you're problems either." I said quietly and I got the distinct impression I was giving myself this lecture as well. "You're mom died when you were a little girl, you got dealt a crappy hand. But the beauty of the game is, you can change you're luck. So change your luck Jordan. Go with me back to Boston and start over with a NEW hand. Because the house DOESN'T always win, sometimes you get dealt that unexpected Ace." I said and Jordan smiled. 

"Thanks Ace." She said leaning forward and gently taking my lips with hers. I lay back in the hammock with Jordan on top of me and we kissed. When she pulled back, there was a quiet resolve in her eyes. 

"So this is kinda like…having someone hold your hand at the doctor's while you're getting a shot?" She asked smiling and I nodded my head. 

"This is exactly like that." I said smiling back. 

"So do I get a lollipop afterwards?" She asked raising her eyebrows. I leaned forward recapturing her lips. 

"Something like that." I said smiling and pulling her bottom lip between my teeth as she chuckled and pushed me back into the hammock. 

Jordan napped in the hammock an hour or so later and I decided that I wasn't going to get a better chance to do what I was about to do. I slipped quietly out from under her and snuck into the house. When Jordan woke up a little later, I was sitting in the sand by the water fishing. She trudged through the sand and came to sit next to me. I smiled and she kissed me a hello. I tipped the reel towards her when she asked if I had caught anything. I shook my head. 

"You give it a shot, you have the magic touch." I said and waited to set it in her hands when the waves were rolling in. She took the reel proudly. I smiled and sat back, waiting for the under toe to tug on the heavy line. When it did, Jordan sat up quickly. 

"I got something!" She cheered proudly and stood up in the sand. I stood with her and told her to reel it in. She smiled and patted my shoulder supportively before returning her attention to the catch. She pulled it in and when the end of the line popped out of the water, Jordan looked at it curiously, her perceptive mind already deducing that what was on the line could not possibly have been caught with a hook. 

"What's this?" She asked curiously and looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders and pulled the line in. Jordan held up the catch. 

"A beer bottle? Wow! Good catch Jordan." I said playfully as she handled the glass bottle. I waited a beat until she realized that there was something inside. 

"What's this?" she asked popping off the cap and jabbing a slender finger down into the bottle. I remained silent and let Jordan pull out the curled slip of paper. She uncurled the paper and regarded it quietly. Without any reaction from her, I began to sweat it out a little. 

"Jordan?" I asked tentatively and she startled a little and then turned her eyes shamefully to me. 

"You wrote this?" She asked, her eyes willing me to say 'no' as she turned the written side of the paper towards me to read. I looked at the handwritten calligraphy briefly enough to be able to assure Jordan that I had indeed written 'Marry Me?' across the paper. 

I nodded and Jordan let her arm drop to her side. I tried to lighten the mood by grabbing the bottle and popping the plastic yellow ring around the cap off. 

"Here! I don't have a real ring yet cause…well…we're here but this'll do right?" I asked placing the plastic loop on her finger. Jordan looked down at the sand and shook her head. 

"You don't have to propose just cause we're sleeping together Woody." Jordan said effectively killing the moment. I sighed helplessly and looked out over the water.

"Jordan…you…you said that you knew my heart." I said taking her hand and placing it against my chest over my heart. "And if that's true…then you know I am not doing this JUST because we're sleeping together…hell…I think I would have done it this week even if we weren't…I just don't wanna miss anymore time with you." I said and Jordan just shook her head again and smiled sadly. 

"I…I need some time to think about this." She said bringing my hand up to her lips and kissing my palm. Then she turned and walked away back to the house…but she didn't take the plastic ring off and she still carried the paper and bottle. This was a good sign to me. Hell, her not socking me in the mouth was a good sign to me.  I tried to be cool about it and let her think things out. Hopefully, she would listen to her heart. 

Later, we packed up our stuff in suitcases we had to buy and even had to buy an extra suitcase for the souvenirs. Jordan sighed and moped uncomfortably around as we packed. It wasn't until I got dressed into a pair of khaki shorts and a polo shirt that Jordan finally surrendered to the fact that we were definitely going home. She went to her room and put on a very tropical, very form fitting blue/green sundress that reached all the way to her ankles but had a slit up nearly to her hip. I had picked out the dress. I smiled when she passed me on her way to the kitchen and she threw a shy smile over her shoulder at me. Her long hair was curly from 2 weeks of sea air and she flipped it over her shoulders. I carried the bags out to the cycle and managed to get the one bag that wouldn't fit in the saddlebags tied right behind Jordan's seat where she could hold it on a little better. When I had finished I wandered back into the house calling her name. 

I found her out back in the hammock. I smiled and slowly approached her, all the while watching her watch the ocean waves. I leaned against the palm tree and sighed. 

"You ready?" I asked and Jordan smiled weakly without turning her head to me. 

"You really want an answer to that?" She asked and then turned her eyes toward me. I flipped my bangs out of my eyes and squinted out at the reflection of the sun off of the clear waves. 

"No." I said and put out my hand to Jordan just like I had the second time we danced in Max's bar. She looked at my hand for a long, contemplative moment then gently placed her smaller one inside of it. 

I pulled her to her feet and flipped the table radio on. I didn't recognize the song right away, but Jordan did. She sang along with it softly as we danced in each other's arms.

"There's a saying old, says that love is blind, 

still we're often told, seek and ye shall find. 

So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had, in mind.

Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet, 

He's the big affair, I cannot forget. 

Only man I ever think of with regret. 

I'd like to add his initial to my monogram, 

Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?

There's a somebody I'm longing to see, 

I hope that he, turns out to be, 

Someone who'll watch over me. 

I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood, 

I know I could, always be good, 

To one who'll watch over me. 

Although he may not be the man some girls think of

As handsome, to my heart he carries the key, 

Won't you tell him please to put on some speed, 

Follow my lead, oh how I need, 

Someone to watch over me. 

Won't you tell him please to put on some speed, 

Follow my lead, oh how I need, 

Someone to watch over me, 

Someone to watch, over me. " 

  
When the song was finished I pulled back and looked down at Jordan wit a smile. She smirked back at me and there was a gleam of tears in her eyes. This song must be important to her. I leaned forward and kissed her lips softly. When I pulled back, she smiled and took my hand. 

"I'm ready to go now." She said and headed slowly towards the door still holding my hand. 

An hour and a half we were sitting quietly together on the plane. I sat to Jordan's left and about ten minutes into the flight, I took her hand. I ran my thumb gently over the plastic ring and Jordan turned her head to me. 

"You don't wanna marry someone like me, Woody." She said finishing a conversation started hours ago. I sighed and looked down at the little plastic ring again. 

"Actually, I think that I do…" I said with a nervous chuckle. Jordan shook her head and looked out her window. 

"You…you were going to marry this girl back home and…and she's nothing like me…probably an angel. Never stayed out late, in by curfew every night, went to Sunday school every week, joined the girl scouts by kindergarten. I spent half my elementary school years in the office at school for beating up boys, I used to sneak through the window well to my basement as the sun was coming up, I…I failed CCD 7 times! And they kicked me out of the Girl Scouts after a month!" She said and I had to look the other way to keep from laughing. 

When I had regained my composure, I turned back to Jordan who was staring at me, waiting for me to say that she was right, and she wasn't the woman for me. I just shook my head. 

"And I love you and all of your juvenile delinquencies…" I said and leaned forward and kissed her quickly before returning to my magazine.   
"Why in the world would you lay this on me now? Why when we were JUST getting ready to go on a plane!?" She lowered her voice. "Where a lot of innocent people could fall victim to my desperation!?" she said looking menacingly at me. I just flipped the next page of my magazine and smiled. 

"Because I knew that there was no way for you to get away from me on a plane." I said proudly and Jordan raised her eyebrows. 

"Oh yeah?" she said and grabbed the arm of the next flight attendant that walked by. 

"Do you need something ma'am?" She asked and Jordan got right up into her face. 

"Get me a parachute and I'll make it worth your while!" Jordan whispered urgently and I pulled her arms from the attendant. 

"Will you STOP it!?" I whispered through my teeth and then turned sweetly to the flight attendant. "She…haha…not so good with flying…Time to take your medicine, Sweetie!" I said pretending to dig pills out of my pocket as the flight attendant walked away shaking her head. Before I could say anything else, Jordan requested the attention of the elderly woman across the aisle from me.   
"Excuse me Ma'am are you married?" She whispered across the aisle as I turned about eight shades of red while covering my face with the magazine. The woman didn't seem surprised or offended by the question and I assumed she had been listening in on the conversation. 

"Why yes, dear for 42 years now." She said proudly and patted the hand of her husband who was dozing next to her. 

"And would you consider yourself an ideal wife for your husband? Would you say that you two have a lot in common?" Jordan asked as I continued to pretend reading my magazine. The woman considered the question for a moment. 

"Who, William and I?" She asked with a chuckle. "No…we didn't have much in common…but we made it work…it takes a little patience…"her husband snorted in his sleep next to her, "And sometimes…a lot of cotton balls." She whispered with a chuckle. Jordan and I both smiled at each other teasingly, neither quite sure who the snoring joke was on. 

  
"But see, the two of us…we have nothing in common!" Jordan said jabbing me in the chest. The woman sat back a little to look at us together.

"Nothing?" she asked with an arched eyebrow. 

Jordan nodded. "He's from Wisconsin, I'm from South Boston.! He was gonna marry this girl back home, prom queen, probably would have been the dutiful little wife, dinner on the table at 6:30 every night, kids washed and in bed by 7:30, sheets on the bed hung outside on a line to dry and then ironed afterwards! I'm lucky if I eat an actual meal twice a week, I can't even take care of a…a…a…goldfish much less rear the life of another human being…and…and…I don't even own an iron and I smell clothes off of my floor to judge whether I can wear them again! I'm practically a guy!" she said and I was suddenly freaked out on a level I hadn't been earlier. Then, before the woman could respond, I turned to Jordan.

"I don't care if I have to cook dinner or if we have takeout every night. And…and most visions of any kids I might have involve the two of us chasing naked little wild childs around the house at midnight trying to keep them still enough to give a bath…and…and…I have an iron…but I don't use it on BED SHEETS! And as for clothes smelling….well…I could stand to teach you the finer points of weekly wash days…" I said holding Jordan's chin. The woman across the aisle 'ahemed'. 

We both turned to look at her. 

"You love her?" She asked looking me dead in the eye. I nodded soberly. 

"Yes, I do." I said smiling shyly. The woman pointed to Jordan. 

"You love him?" She asked and Jordan looked from me to the woman as a smile spread across her face. She nodded. 

"Yeah?" she almost asked. The lady clapped her hands together and looked up at the ceiling of the plane. 

"Hallelujah, a common thread!" she said and smiled at us. We smiled at each other. "All you need is love." The woman said patting her husband's hand again. "John Lennon and Paul McCartney, very smart men." She said and Jordan and I chuckled, taking each other's hands. I rolled the plastic ring on her finger. 

"Oh, and actual engagement jewelry is nice too." The woman said smiling as she laid back her head and closed her eyes. I looked to Jordan for an answer and she nodded with tears in her eyes. 

She didn't need to say the words out loud. I trusted that she was telling the truth; after all…I know her heart. And in those past two weeks, she had learned how to listen to it. 

                                                                                    THE END


End file.
